02 Oct News from the Upper School…with Gov. Cuomo team

On September 28th our 12th-grade students had the opportunity to participate in the New York State Mentoring Program, created by Matilda Cuomo, who introduced the Program during her participation at our last annual benefit dinner.

Members of Mrs. Cuomo’s team, Mrs. Janet Bedin, and Mr. Joe Aquino, came to school to present the program and give a testimonial of the mentoring experience. Mrs. Bedin trained the students on what it means to become a Mentor and the benefits of personal growth of mentors and mentees.

The program consists of two steps: first, the children will mentor students in lower grades at La Scuola, with a commitment of one hour per week, with an academical, but mostly social support. The mentors will be, for their younger schoolmates, a point of reference, a person they could rely on for advice, a chat, some company, or even emotional support.

After this first period, they will have the possibility to continue mentoring at school or to take the next step of going to a public school and becoming a mentor of an at-risk student (a student at risk of dropping out of school).

The program will start in a few weeks and will be on a voluntary basis.

We would like to thank Mrs. Teresa Sorkin for facilitating this important connection between our school and Mrs. Cuomo’s team.